"I Have Seen Him in the Watchfires" (Civil War Series #2) (Paperback)by Cathy GohlkeCathy Gohlke (Author) Visit Amazon's Cathy Gohlke Page"The bonds linking family and the lines separating enemies have become very blurry for 17 year old Robert. With his father away fighting for the Union, Robert must decide to act alone in order to help his ailing mother, extricate his injured Confederate Uncle, and bring relief to his cousin, Emily.When he unwittingly gets entangled in a Confederate escape plot, Robert must forge his anger and shame into a new determination to save his family. And, perhaps, he must also realize that the saving might not be entirely up to him.Honor and duty to God and country aren't as clear-cut as he hoped them to be."

Via Paperbackswap I received:"The Wild Irish" by Robin Maxwell"Two female titans -- perfectly matched in guts, guile, and political genius. Elizabeth, queen of England, has taken on the mighty Spanish Armada and, in a stunning sea battle, vanquished it. But her troubles are far from over. Just across the western channel, her colony Ireland is embroiled in seething rebellion, with the island's fierce, untamed clan chieftains and their "wild Irish" followers refusing to bow to their English oppressors. Grace O'Malley -- notorious pirate, gunrunner, and "Mother of the Irish Rebellion" -- is at the heart of the conflict. For years, she has fought against the English stranglehold on her beloved country. At the height of the uprising Grace takes an outrageous risk, sailing up the Thames to London for a face-to-face showdown with her nemesis, the queen of England."

From three different giveaway's courtesy of Hachette Books:From http://ajourneyofbooks.blogspot.com/ I won:"My Name is Will" A Novel of Sex, Drugs, and Shakespeare By Jess Winfield "A Tale of two Shakespeares... Struggling UC Santa Cruz grad student Willie Shakespeare Greenberg is trying to write his thesis about the Bard. Kind of...Cut off by his father for laziness, and desperate for dough, Willie agrees to deliver a single giant, psychedelic mushroom to a mysterious collector, making himself an unwitting target in Ronald Reagan's War on Drugs." Read More Here

"Athenais" by Lisa Hilton "As biography, as history, as a rich story superbly told, ATHENAIS will appeal to readers of Antonia Fraser, Amanda Foreman, Francine du Plessix Gray, and Alison Weir.- ATHENAIS quickly sold through three hardcover printings."

From a Twitter contest at Random House I won:"Girl in A Blue Dress" by Gaynor Arnold

"The celebrated debut novel inspired by the life and marriage of Charles Dickens Alfred Gibson’s funeral is taking place at Westminster Abbey, and his wife of twenty years, Dorothea, has not been invited. The Great Man’s will favours his children and a clandestine mistress over the woman he sent away when their youngest child was still an infant.

Dorothea hasn’t left her small apartment for years, and accepts her exclusion — until an invitation to a private audience with Queen Victoria arrives. The exhilaration of finding that she has much in common with the most powerful woman in England spurs Dorothea to examine her own life more closely. Her recollections uncover deviousness and the frighteningly hypnotic power of the genius she married, but also raise questions about her own complicity in her unhappiness. Questions that finally compel her to face her grown-up children and the two women she has long felt stole her husband: her own younger sister, Sissy, and the charming actress, Miss Ricketts.

This remarkable debut is as wise in the ways of the human heart as it is witty and vivid in its depiction of the charismatic Alfred Gibson, and the habits, mores, and personalities of Victorian London."

And finally, my order from Amazon last month came (I was afraid they were going to cancel it like last years Christmas gift!):"Mary Boleyn: The True Story of Henry VIII's Mistress" by Josephine Wilkinson (Pub. July 2009, and pretty short at 240 pages so it shouldn't be boring. "The scandalous true story of Mary Boleyn, infamous sister of Anne, and mistress of Henry VIII.The fictionalized story of Mary Boleyn is told in the current Hollywood blockbuster The Other Boleyn Girl (based on Philippa Gregory's bestseller) starring Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman which has generated huge interest in Mary as a historical figure.Mary Boleyn, 'the infamous other Boleyn girl', began her court career as the mistress of the king of France. Francois I of France would later call her 'The Great Prostitute' and the slur stuck.The bete-noir of her family, Mary was married her off to a minor courtier but it was not long before she caught the eye of Henry VIII and a new affair began. Although a bright star at Henry's court, she was soon eclipsed by her highly spirited and more accomplished sister, Anne, who rapidly took her place in the king's heart. However, the ups and downs of the Boleyn sisters were far from over. Mary would emerge the sole survivor of a family torn apart by lust and ambition, and it is in Mary and her progeny that the Boleyn legacy rests."

With You Always (Orphan Train #1) by Jody Hedlund June 2017, Bethany House (borrowed from library) Could following the opportunity...

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This blog began in 2008 as I needed a spot to record my thoughts after a tragedy. It quickly turned into an obsession with books which turned into reviews of books which turned into a lot of pressure of which I walked away from.
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